splitmanj
how many cultures do you put in a jar each stage?
I start with one or two leaf cuttings that are about the size of a hole punch. I place these leaf cuttings into a medium that contains BAP or other shoot promoting hormone.
1- grow to multiply
Once I get shoots from the original cultures and leaves start to form on the shoots I can start culturing from the original culture. This is where PCT wins over cloning. I can multiply my plants exponentially. Just take a few shoots with leaves and put them into the original shoot media.
2- cut up into smaller clumps, and put into shoot medium
When you PCT from leaves you get "clumps" of shoots. Normally you can start rooting the shoots as soon as you see the first leaves, however if you do this you WILL stress the new shoots and you WILL kill a few. If you wait about 6 days after the first sign of leaves you will have a better success rate.
I PCT raspberry and blackberry VINES. That being said when I cut up my clumps of shoots, I usually cut them down to 2 to 4 shoots and let them root together. Seeing as how they are vines I can do it this way, I do not know how this would work for you. If I were doing bushes or vegetables I would cut the clumps down to individuals. I one could do the 2 to 4 shoots per clump and then only keep the best shoot when transplanting. This way you would get the advantage of multiply shoot rooting with only one stem to support.
3- transplant into root medium
When transplant the shoots into Rooting media I usually transplant 2 or 3 sets of shoots. Instead of using baby food jars I will use larger wide mouth mason jars, and put the cultures as far apart as I can. This helps keep the roots from becoming entangled once they start to grow. Also instead of the usual 30-45 ml of media, I put 75-90 ml in the larger jars.
so do you put 3+ into each jar for growing to multiply?
I will put multiply shoot cultures in the same container. I will sometimes put multiply cuttings in a container. You must have good aseptic technique and a steril working enviroment for this to work. If only one part of one cutting is contaiminated it will normally destroy the entire culture container. This can happen with single specimen cultures as well, but you only loose one specimen per container.
then cut them up into smaller clumps and put 3-4 clumps into one jar with shoot medium, then transplant each of them into root medium, 3+ per jar until rooted?
Yes. Different plants will be treated differently at this stage. Vines and ferns are ok with multiply shoots per rooting culture. vegetables such as cabbage or celery would be done individually at the shoot stage. The differance is in the end result. Thing about what you want to acheive with your cultures and thin the shoots accordingly.
or after you first cut the cultures up into smaller clumps, give each culture their own jar to grow shoots, then transplant into root medium, only one per jar?
This is the easiest way to make sure that contaminated cultures do not effect other cultures. You can only kill what is inside the contaminated cultures container. If each culture is in its own container and one culture becomes contaminated you can only loose that one.
i was hoping to have 3 per jar, through the entire growing process, with 3 per jar, then cut them up, put 3 per jar for shoots, then transplant 3 per jar in rooting medium...are the cultures going to be too big to end up having 3 per jar after they root?
I do this after I have my first round of shoot cultureing completed. There is a much higher risk of contamination from "parent plant" cuttings than there is from cultured cuttings. Once I have cultured shoots I take my next batch of cuttings from the cultured shoots, and culture multiply cuttings within the same container.
also, (so many questions, i know!), 1- what light do you use over your lights, and 2- how close to the tray do you hang it?
I use 4 foot 4 bulb t-5 ho fixtures that are adjustable from 12 inches high to right on top of the culture container. I have never mover my lights lower than 12 inches.
im using a regular cheap 80w cfl shop light over mine now, only one tray (starting small), and hanging it about 1 ft above the top of the jars.
I think that those will work... cultures do not need a lot of light.
im also planning to use one 80w shop light over 3-4 stacks of trays (5 trays per stack x 3-4 stacks side by side)
will this be ok concerning stacks and amount of light, or too much light? light too close to jars?
I do not stack my cultures, however I do not see why you couldn't. I use vented caps and can not stack cultures my cultures. As long as there is a little light for the container I would think that you could stack them.
Hope that this helps.